Dear Friends of the Citrin Center,
We are about to embark on another year at a historical juncture when the study of public opinion and political psychology is especially relevant. Thanks to your support we have gradually expanded the scope of our programming, our collaboration with other research units on the Berkeley campus, and the support of our graduate students.
Upcoming Citrin Center Events
Thanks to the creative leadership of David Broockman in the past academic year, the Center hosted four panels, four book talks and two lectures, including the annual Award Lecture by Nate Cohn of the New York Times. This fall we will focus on the presidential and congressional elections with attention to critical issues and the role of polls, and campaign strategy. Here is the schedule:
| Sept. 20, 2024, 3:30-5:00PM | Election 2024: What’s At Stake, featuring Louis DeSipio, Samara Klar, and Gabriel Lenz (Registration available) |
| Oct. 18, 2024, 3:30PM-5:00PM | Election 2024: Home Stretch |
| Oct. 24, 2024, 3:30-5:00PM | Book Talk: What Is Conservative? with Professor Marc Hetherington, University of North Carolina |
| Nov. 15, 2024, 3:30PM-5:00PM | Election 2024: Post-Mortem |
| Dec. 4, 2024, 3:30PM-5:00PM | Citrin Award Lecture: David O. Sears, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Political Science, UCLA |
In addition to these events, the Citrin Center will be co-sponsoring the following event:
| Nov. 8, 2024, 9:00AM-4:00PM | SCOCA: A Conference on the California Supreme Court, Co-Sponsored with California Constitution Center and Berkeley Law In person at UC Law San Francisco and on Zoom |
People
Professor Omar Wasow has assumed the role of Faculty Director of the Center as David Broockman is now the Director of the Berkeley Center of American Democracy. We owe David a huge debt for his leadership and his ongoing participation in the Center’s activities.
Omar Wasow
Omar Wasow is an Assistant Professor in the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science. His research focuses on race and politics. His co-authored work on the challenge of estimating effects of race was published in the Annual Review of Political Science (2016). His research on protest movements has been featured in the New Yorker, the Atlantic and the Washington Post. Before joining the academy, Omar served as a regular on-air technology analyst and was the co-founder of BlackPlanet.com, a social network he helped grow to over three million active users. In 2003, he helped found a high performing K-8 charter school in Brooklyn. He received a PhD in African American studies, an MA in Government and an MA in Statistics from Harvard University.
Three new members with vast experience in politics and business and a strong commitment to UC Berkeley have joined the External Board of Advisors.
Brian Brokaw
Brian Brokaw has been a Partner at The Media Company LLC since 2021. He was Principal of Brian Brokaw Consulting LLC from 2011 to 2021. Brokaw presently serves as a political advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom. He served as campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy for California Attorney General in 2010 and 2014. With more than a decade of experience in California politics, Brokaw has been involved in some of the most high profile ballot campaigns as well. He also serves as a communication advisor to a range of organizations, technology, sports, and other non profit organizations. In 2019, he was named to the American Association of Political Consultants “40 Under 40” List. Brokaw serves as a board member of The Representation Project in Oakland, California and is a special advisor to the Alice Water’s Institute. He was recently appointed to the California Film Commission. Brokaw earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jon Cohen
Jon Cohen is the Founder and CEO of TrueDot, an AI-powered insights platform based in Palo Alto. Jon is a seasoned researcher and senior technology executive with decades of high-stakes survey experience. He ran presidential and midterm campaign polling at The Washington Post and ABC News, consulted with the NBC News Decision Desk, and currently advises Decision Desk HQ. As SurveyMonkey’s first and only Chief Research Officer, he delivered significant revenue gains over nine years of building next-generation tools and consulting on survey technology across Silicon Valley and globally. Jon was named “new school pollster,” changing the game in Washington by the National Journal. Cohen received his Bachelor of Arts from John Hopkins University and a Masters of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Joseph Garrett
Joe Garrett studied political science as an undergraduate at Berkeley, got his Masters in the same field at the University of Washington, and returned to Berkeley to get his MBA. He then spent his career in investment and commercial banking, serving as the CEO of two banks and as a Director of four banks. Garrett also believes in public service and served on the Berkeley Planning Commission, the Berkeley Redevelopment Commission, and was Chairman of the Berkeley Housing Authority.
Student Support
The Citrin Center provides $2000 research grants to outstanding incoming members of Berkeley’s Political Science Graduate Program, with a primary interest in public opinion and political psychology. Meet our two new Citrin Center Graduate Student Fellows, described below.
Ben Gelman
Ben Gelman received his BA from Princeton University in 2023 and is completing an MA at Queen’s University. Gelman is interested in policy feedback and public opinion, such as the effects of the expanded Child Tax Credit during the pandemic. Gelman’s senior thesis examines variation in welfare benefit uptake in the US and Canada and examines how these shifts affect political outcomes.
Anne Marie Green
Anne Marie Green received her BA from Boston College in 2020 and has served as a pre-doc at Harvard Business School working for Leslie John and focusing on work in psychology. She is interested in research at the intersection of psychology and political science, especially focusing on research on public opinion around the environment and environmental social movements. She is working on a paper with a PhD student at HBS about how political awareness mediates the identity-politics link.
This Fall, The Citrin Center is funding an exciting new research project under the direction of Professor David Broockman. Five students will conduct an Omnibus Survey. John Konicki, Zachary Hertz, Alan Yan, Matt Easton, and Pia Deshpande who will pursue a research agenda with these foci: the connection between ideological resentment and polarization; the impact of Anti-Asian hate crimes on political participation; the influence of labor union activism on voting; measures attitudes about gender and dating preferences and finally; whether self reported media consumption overestimates the reality of media exposure.
For more information on our Faculty Advisory Committee and External Board of Advisors, go to the “People” tab on the Citrin Center Website, https://citrincenter.berkeley.edu/people/ Thank you in advance for your continued interest and support. The Citrin Center is funded solely by donations from its friends and this generosity has made possible the growth of our activities.
